Captivate shortcomings you can and can't fix

[riskr]

After using the Captivate for 2 weeks, here's my list of its most glaring shortcomings and how you can fix some of them. Although the tone of this message is negative, I do love the device and do not regret choosing it.

If you can add items to this thread, especially ones that can be fixed, this can be a useful thread for new owners.

Shortcomings you can fix:

1. Missing LED notification. I miss blinking notification on my old BlackBerry devices. Fix = NoLED app.

2. Soft keyboard. It is functional and the input by voice option works okay. But I do miss physical keyboards I used on BlackBerry and Treo devices. Fix = Swype. This is a revolutionary input option.

3. Default Mail App. I connect to Corp. Exchange and this app sets the mobile email experience 5 years back! Fix = TouchDown and $20. Some users reported lags and crashes. Take a test drive.

Shortcomings you cannot fix:

1. Battery. Charging twice-a-day to get about 3 hours of actual data use is a tough pill. Taking people's advice and limiting widget and wifi use will make minimum improvements.

2. Charger and USB port. The stock charger fits so poorly into the USB port you would think it's a $1 aftermarket one. The slightest phone move will disconnect the charger.

Edit: Read responses below for a fix!

3. Missing Trackpad. I did use an HTC Aria and the trackpad is very helpful for moving the cursor and editing text. Fat fingers will miss it!

 

[MarcMaiden]

Nice post, the but problems you cant fix (aside from the track pad) I have different results from.

I get at least a day and a half of charge with normal use (includes internet, games, 5 widgets, feeds)

and the USB charger fits extremely snug into the port,you just have to make sure the hatch is push all the way back. for some reason it kinda locks into a position a click away from being pushed all the way back, which caused the USB to not stay in the phone as well as it should

 

[ageros]

2. Charger and USB port. The stock charger fits so poorly into the USB port you would think it's a $1 aftermarket one. The slightest phone move will disconnect the charger.

This might seem like a terribly silly question, but is the usb door open all the way? The first day with mine I slid open the door, and ran into the issue of the connector not fitting right. As I found the next day the door slides open, and then with one more push "clicks" open the rest of the way. If opened all the way my usb cable fits very snug and securely.

 

[ranova]

After using the Captivate for 2 weeks, here's my list of its most glaring shortcomings and how you can fix some of them. Although the tone of this message is negative, I do love the device and do not regret choosing it.

If you can add items to this thread, especially ones that can be fixed, this can be a useful thread for new owners.

Shortcomings you can fix:

1. Missing LED notification. I miss blinking notification on my old BlackBerry devices. Fix = NoLED app.

2. Soft keyboard. It is functional and the input by voice option works okay. But I do miss physical keyboards I used on BlackBerry and Treo devices. Fix = Swype. This is a revolutionary input option.

3. Default Mail App. I connect to Corp. Exchange and this app sets the mobile email experience 5 years back! Fix = TouchDown and $20. Some users reported lags and crashes. Take a test drive.

Shortcomings you cannot fix:

1. Battery. Charging twice-a-day to get about 3 hours of actual data use is a tough pill. Taking people's advice and limiting widget and wifi use will make minimum improvements.

2. Charger and USB port. The stock charger fits so poorly into the USB port you would think it's a $1 aftermarket one. The slightest phone move will disconnect the charger.

3. Missing Trackpad. I did use an HTC Aria and the trackpad is very helpful for moving the cursor and editing text. Fat fingers will miss it!

1. NoLED is a great idea, but a drain on the battery, you stated battery problems, get rid of it. It drains about 15% every hour.

2. Yes, swype is great. You can also try swiftkey and other keybaords in the market - cant do that with iOS

3. Yes, touchdown is great for corporate email AND you don't need to enter a damn unlock code everytime you unlock your phone like the stock exchange app requires you to.


Shortcomings.
1. My battery is fine. Turn wifi sleep policy to never and keep wifi on in wifi areas. Make sure you have fully discharged the battery for a week. When your battery says full on charging you really need another 1-2 hours of charging to really make it 100%. I've gotten 45 hours since last charge with moderate usage the two days. Again, because you use noLED, that is the biggest battery drain.

2. My usb cable and port are fine - make sure you are opening up the slide door ALL THE WAY. push it until it clicks. Aftermarket microusb cables do fall out because most of them don't have a click lock on them like the bundled one has.

3. Trackpad would be nice, but definitely not needed. Just swipe from the Swype button to SYM and use the arrow keys if needed.

 

[Invero]

My charger fits snugly... you've made sure your door is fully open, right? If so, maybe there might be a defect with the port?

As for the trackpad and selecting text... if you're using Swype, simply swipe from the Swype key to the SYM key... a new directional and selection keypad will come up that makes selecting text a breeze.

I'm not sure, but I think the other keyboards have something similar. I haven't seen or tried on them yet though.

 

[riskr]

MarcMaiden and ageros, thanks for the door tip. I did not realize that and I hope others now realize it too.

 

[jdCaptivate]

This might seem like a terribly silly question, but is the usb door open all the way? The first day with mine I slid open the door, and ran into the issue of the connector not fitting right. As I found the next day the door slides open, and then with one more push "clicks" open the rest of the way. If opened all the way my usb cable fits very snug and securely.

Yeah, you think it sounds like a silly question... then you do a Google search and/or read other forums... and you find out just how common it is. In fact, I knew about it BEFORE I bought my phone, because I found it listed so many places (I tend to be anal about purchases and do a boatload of review reading before I spend money).

Good advice and probably appreciated by more than a few.

 

[ADPowah]

Surprised that there is no mention of the slow IO write speeds or the GPS issues.

 

[AWilson]

Funny neither of the AT&T cables I have fit properly. Neither is snug and the extra (longer) AT&T cable I bought the day I got the phone doesn't fit well becaues the plastic casing on the plug is TOO BIG and I can't push it all the way in! It works but it's wiggley. My husband's cable for something else fits tightly. Unbelievable!

Oh, and Yes, the door is all the way open. I just checked to be sure

 

[tasmanian]

The home buttons and gps are only the real short come of the phone.

I dont know if its the case or what, but the bottom buttons are a pain in the ass to use.

Gps isnt really an issue with the fix. It takes 30-90 seconds to get a lock, and when it does its very accurate.

 

[baddress]

1. Battery. Charging twice-a-day to get about 3 hours of actual data use is a tough pill. Taking people's advice and limiting widget and wifi use will make minimum improvements.

2. Charger and USB port. The stock charger fits so poorly into the USB port you would think it's a $1 aftermarket one. The slightest phone move will disconnect the charger.

1. 3 hours on two charges is ridiculous and unless you have the weakest signal ever and are using 3g constantly you need to go exchange your phone. I bet your display also says it is the highest % of battery used? If you use noled all the time at least dump that and see what happens otherwise exchange for a new phone. I exchanged and now for instance I haven't charged my phone since Sunday morning and I still have 14% battery left right now after like 123 hours and that's not even rooted or task killed or anything like that, and all the same exact setup as the phone that sucked.

2. Open the charging door all the way.


The only real things I see that can't be fix are:
-lack of flash
-slow internal memory card
-possibly the gps if it's a hardware problem.
Everything else I can think of right now can be worked around, fixed by new software, fixed by exchanging phone, etc.

 

[Segfault]

The main problem I have is with the WIFI. It works just fine on my home WPA-2 network but its pretty worthless at my work. It can connect to the WPA-2 personal and enterprise networks but after a few seconds it doesn't transfer any more data. From what I have read it looks like its an android bug that is fixed in Froyo so apparently I'm stuck with it until Froyo is released or someone puts out an eclair firmware with the bug patched.

 

[baddress]

The main problem I have is with the WIFI. It works just fine on my home WPA-2 network but its pretty worthless at my work. It can connect to the WPA-2 personal and enterprise networks but after a few seconds it doesn't transfer any more data. From what I have read it looks like its an android bug that is fixed in Froyo so apparently I'm stuck with it until Froyo is released or someone puts out an eclair firmware with the bug patched.

There's known problems with getting the right subnet mask, there's also a problem, with 802.1x authentication, and another problem with wpa/wpa2 key exchange, all of which are supposedly fixed in froyo. In the meantime you can try setting static ip that might work for you depending your enterprise setup.

 

[txtigah]

I also have WiFi issues...seems to be slow on home network at times and email client shows connection problems often. Overall much slower than my 2.5 year old windows phone was but I look forward to FROYO and the GPS fix.
The battery drain is probably noLED and also make sure you have a task manager installed. Lots of programs on this phone seem to randomly start up. You need to check your task manager a few times daily to shut down battery sucking programs.

 

[yahoowizard]

1. NoLED is a great idea, but a drain on the battery, you stated battery problems, get rid of it. It drains about 15% every hour.

2. Yes, swype is great. You can also try swiftkey and other keybaords in the market - cant do that with iOS

3. Yes, touchdown is great for corporate email AND you don't need to enter a damn unlock code everytime you unlock your phone like the stock exchange app requires you to.


Shortcomings.
1. My battery is fine. Turn wifi sleep policy to never and keep wifi on in wifi areas. Make sure you have fully discharged the battery for a week. When your battery says full on charging you really need another 1-2 hours of charging to really make it 100%. I've gotten 45 hours since last charge with moderate usage the two days. Again, because you use noLED, that is the biggest battery drain.

2. My usb cable and port are fine - make sure you are opening up the slide door ALL THE WAY. push it until it clicks. Aftermarket microusb cables do fall out because most of them don't have a click lock on them like the bundled one has.

3. Trackpad would be nice, but definitely not needed. Just swipe from the Swype button to SYM and use the arrow keys if needed.

Umm, first of all, does it still charge after it gives the "Battery fully charged, please disconnect", and second, how do you set Wi-Fi to "Never sleep"?

 

[chicknlil]

Battery definitely can get good usage. I'm looking at mine right now, with 8% left, unplugged for 66 hours. Juice Defender is well worth its cost.

 

[ranova]

Umm, first of all, does it still charge after it gives the "Battery fully charged, please disconnect", and second, how do you set Wi-Fi to "Never sleep"?

yes, it still charges after that message. If you pull it out right after you get that pop-up, chances are it will instantly show 95-99% instead of 100%

Go into Settings, Wireless and Network, WiFi Settings, hit menu button and advanced, then Wifi Sleep Policy

 

[baddress]

My opinion is that task killers are either overrated or even do more harm than good. I don't use them and my battery life is fine.

 

[looksbetterinred]

Battery definitely can get good usage. I'm looking at mine right now, with 8% left, unplugged for 66 hours. Juice Defender is well worth its cost.

I also would recomend Juice Defender!

 

[Quandry]

Possible shortcoming: Does Calendar (stock that came pre-loaded on phone) not synch back to Exchange Server. That is, if I create an appointment on Outloook while VPN'd into server, the server will "push" the appointment to my Captivate. However, if I enter an appointment on Captivate it will not update Outlook on server. Is there a way to overcome this or is inherent to the OS on the Captivate/Android? This may be a deal breaker for me.

 

[Stark]

Select Settings from the Menu button, then Accounts and Sync, select your Exchange account from the Manage Accounts list, and see if Sync Calendar is checked.

Mine syncs the Calendar both ways all the time, regardless of whether it's on 3G, Edge, or WiFi. Actually, I can't get the thing to *stop* checking mail on the Exchange account.

 

[Quandry]

Select Settings from the Menu button, then Accounts and Sync, select your Exchange account from the Manage Accounts list, and see if Sync Calendar is checked.

Mine syncs the Calendar both ways all the time, regardless of whether it's on 3G, Edge, or WiFi. Actually, I can't get the thing to *stop* checking mail on the Exchange account.

Stark: thanks for your input. I've tried that and the at&t store tried that; it did not work for either of us. It's odd because I can send email through the server. Maybe it is this particular handset. I will ask our IT person on Tuesday and call at&t's tech support. I really like this phone except for that (I LOVE SWYPE). Again, thanks for your reply.

 

[idigm]

Will touchdown work with yahoo mail...?? The app is really bad and most other apps I have tried in place of it aren't much better, thanks.

 

[jen41472]

I have a serious issue, i can't for the life of me get my music player no matter which one i choose to play after the screen times out. What is the deal???

 

[avgazn91]

i don't know about you, but my battery life has significantly gotten better through out my 3 weeks of use so far. The only time it doesn't last me all day is if I non-stop play games. I've gone through a 16 hour day playing videogames, making calls, texting, and internet surfing almost constantly and still came out with 23% battery left when I come to charge it. Which brings me to the next thing. My charger feels great when I plug it in. It fits snuggly, and it feels completely secure. I use my phone when it charges (tilting, moving, etc.) and it never stops charging and it never loses contact.